They were designed with kids in mind; besides there's like 80million other sets with the old stock scifi blasters. These could be repurposed as grenade launchers or somthing.

Timedude wrote:Huh. Interesting! I'm thinking... Ion Blasters?

I don't know, if Clone Trooper™ vs. Droidekas™ and those commercials are any indication, Blue Transparent studs are suppose to be some sort of explosive anyways...

That actually might be the explanation why the all Orange Squad has them, they're explosive Specialist ARC troopers using Grenade Launchers to take down Enemy Heavy Support.Only other sets to come with them are the Kashyyyk and Death Star Troop Builder packs as well as the Droid Gunship, but those could easily swap out for regular blasters considering the Gunship’s ARF Trooper is shown with both.

I thought this was against the culture at Lego. Did the new CEO guy change it to sell more shit? This must have been quite a culture shock in Billund.

Apparently it's just a new Gimmick like the new Spring Loaded Launchers...Really though, these things do look less like guns than what we already had, and shooting a stud can always be excuse as some sort of non-lethal ammunition....Remember the last Dino theme and it's "Tranquilizer Missiles"?

I find this new type of blaster to be more kid-friendly (in terms of aesthetic) than the previous "realistic-y" firearms. I think such feature creep (missiles) is a necessary compromise to compete with other brands whose sci-fi lines already have said function (like halo, tenkai knights or kreo).

i might get one set of the utapau troopers since by themselves they already fit the theme of one of my armies *white/black/orange*I too agree that while I liked the old blasters, we have so many of them that these new pieces could be used for something else like grenade launchers or heavy weapons.